Remember Allcare Dental?

With corporate dentistry taking over the world, it’s good to remember Allcare who closed it’s doors overnight in January 2011 leaving patients without care or recourse, and dental boards scratching their..uh.…heads.

A class action lawsuit was filed and just like the Allcare’s doors, patients were left lock-jawed.

Allcare Dental Class Action Lawsuit

The Allcare companies filed for bankruptcy in the Western District of New York (Buffalo), Bankruptcy Petition #: 1-11-13848-CLB.  Those proceedings terminated in 2013 with a report of no distribution.  As such, there are no available assets from these entities for unsecured creditors.

You may have individual claims.  Once the class action claims are dismissed, the statute of limitations for your claims will continue to run.  You should contact an individual attorney in your state if you desire individual representation.  Failure to file within the applicable statute of limitations will forever bar your claims.  We are not handling these claims given the no-distribution report.

http://www.allcaredentalclassaction.com/uploads/Allcare-Dental-Class-Action-Complaint-filed-2-7-2011.PDF

Allcare patient speaks about ordeal in 2012.

http://www.abc57.com/home/top-stories/ALLCARE-DENTAL--162156285.html

Indiana taxpayers pick up the tab for shafted Allcare Dental patients

Customers of Allcare Dental get money back

Updated: Thursday, January 16, 2014, 12:09 PM EST

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Many patients who lost money when a dental business closed its doors without notice got some of their money back, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller announced Thursday.

Allcare Dental closed in 2011, leaving customers in Avon, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Mishawaka and Muncie without a provider and with a lot of questions.

The dental company declared bankruptcy. Eventually, the nearly 300 customers who filed complaints in Indiana received some or all of their money back. The patients lost anywhere from $69 to $9,125 but the state could only pay back a maximum of $3,000 per person by state statute.

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Wonder if Greg is related to Linda Zoeller of Small Smiles fame?

Indiana AG filed complaint against Allcare Dental and Dentures

 

Complaint filed against Allcare Dental & Dentures

Jul 06, 2012 WNDU.com

The Indiana attorney general's office has filed an administrative complaint against Allcare Dental & Dentures President Robert Bates for multiple licensing violations.

In January of last year, Allcare Dental & Dentures, which is a national chain of dentist offices, abruptly closed its locations including one in Mishawaka.

According to the complaint filed before the Indiana State Board of Dentistry, the president gave a two-day notice to his Indiana employees that offices would close for two weeks.

Days before the offices were supposed to re-open, he notified his workers that the offices would be closed permanently.

Indiana's attorney general says patients were left without their dentist, their records, dental devices and did not get a refund.

The Indiana State Board of Dentistry will decide if a violation occurred and if so, what disciplinary action there will be.

The board is tentatively scheduled to hold a hearing on the complaint in October.

David Bates, DDS, president of Allcare Dental Management and Allcare Dental and Dentures of New Hampshire, surrendered his license to the state Board of Dental Examiners

NASHUA – The president of a defunct dental chain gave up his New Hampshire dentistry license to resolve professional misconduct charges.

David Bates, DDS, president of Allcare Dental Management and Allcare Dental and Dentures of New Hampshire, surrendered his license to the state Board of Dental Examiners. The board approved the agreement on May 9, according to state Attorney General Michael Delaney.

Bates had been scheduled to appear before the board for disciplinary hearings later this month. Bates has also been the focus of licensing boards in Massachusetts, West Virginia and North Dakota, Delaney said.

Most of the company’s offices closed abruptly in December 2010. In Nashua, that meant hundreds of former patients, some of whom said they prepaid for dental work, descended on the Nashua office shortly after New Year’s Day trying to track down their dental records, X-rays and dentures.

Small Smiles Again Under Fire in Albany, NY 4-1-08

Attn: State Investigators
If there is a Small Smiles Clinic in your state and you are not investigating them, you should be. There is a clear connection between Medicaid Dental Clinics, Small Smiles and Kool Smiles. At the end of this article you will see exactly what the connection is.


Two Employees Speaks out about Small Smiles Office in Albany New York.

Video May Be Disturbing

Part 1 of Investigation:

CBS Channle 6 WRGB New Albany, New York, April 1, 2008

Picture a young child strapped into a dental chair, unable to move his arms or legs.
As the cold, metal instruments invade his trembling mouth, the boy's heart begins to race: 200 beats per minute. 225. 250.
Now, he's sweating, throwing-up and urinating his pants - frantically scanning the room full of masked faces for some sign the pain will come to an end.
But it does not. The dentist keeps on working
"That's Small Smiles," said Nicole, a former assistant at the Colonie children's dentistry clinic. "Don't bring your kids there."
Speaking on condition of anonymity, former employees Nicole and Holly detailed a list of allegations against the clinic and its lead dentist, Dr. Maziar Izadi. They include:
-Rushing through procedures, even when children are vomiting and urinating

-Allowing children's heart rates to go dangerously past 200 beats per minute

-Performing unnecessary procedures, such as placing crowns on baby teeth that are about to fall-out

-Needlessly placing children under a papoose board, a device that immobilizes their arms and legs

-Discouraging parents from sitting with their children during procedures

-Failing to properly sterilize instruments


"They were constantly pushing production," Holly said. "I think they do it so they can make a fast buck."
Holly and Nicole allege staff members, notably Dr. Izadi, earn lucrative bonuses for achieving certain production numbers - a claim the company denies.
Dr. Izadi did not return CBS 6 phone calls, and ran to his car when approached by CBS 6 reporter Steve Flamisch and photographer Chris Cornell in the Small Smiles parking lot.
A receptionist forwarded our call to Small Smiles corporate spokesman Don Meyer, who said that a review of 40 charts found that all procedures were "necessary and proper." He acknowledged, however, that the doctor who performed the review is a Small Smiles employee, and not an independent expert.

To be fair, Small Smiles did take swift action when informed of allegations that several employees may be using crack cocaine and marijuana, allegedly during their lunch breaks.

A corporate team promptly flew-in from Colorado and drug tested the entire staff. Meyer confirmed there were terminations, but he would not say how many - nor would he say whether anyone had been tested at the time of their hiring. Former employees allege no one is tested.
A government source confirmed that state officials are looking into the list of allegations against Small Smiles.
The company's clinics have also been the subject of news investigations in Denver, Rochester, and Washington D.C.

According to reports, FORBA, LLC began in Pueblo, CO, then was taken over by Sanus, a holding company in Nashville, TN, but a large portion of it's firm would continue to operate out of Pueblo, CO.

Hmmm.. Isn't that where Michael DeRose, DDS, owner of a 3 million dollar home, who was fined $10 million dollars this week lives? Well, yes it is as a matter of fact.

Now isn't William A. Mueller, DDS an old buddy of Michael DeRose's? Well, yes he is, they co-owned several clinics together back in the day. Including Smile High Dental Clinic in Colorado.

Isn't William A. Mueller associated with FORBA, LLC from it's conceptions? Well, yes he surely is. see here . and here And look, a one Edward DeRose in with FORBA. This Eddy could be related to Michael DeRose, well I bet he is don't you?

And look here! See how many founders of Kool Smiles are formerly associated with Smile High Dental Clinics out of Colorado. Looks like at least two. Dr. Tu Tran and Dr. Tim Pham.

And look here. FORBA says he operates 42 clinics and has 750,000 patients a year.

And here is where we find ourselves at Arcapita, Inc. Arcapita Bank. Where it acquired FORBA for 435 million dollars.


I found this at topix:

I work for Kool Smiles, a sister corporation of Small Smiles and all I can say is that their "philosophy" is awfully confusing. They say that they do not NOT allow parents to go back with their children during treatment, yet when we had people from our corporate office visiting us one week, we were reprimanded endlessly for having parents in the back office and they even went so far as to have additional training for employees to learn how to "handle" those parents who want to accompany their child. We also have a consent form somewhere in a packet of forms that every parent is required to fill out every six months, that allows us to use restraint techniques, voice control, and hand-over-mouth on their children - if they are anything like me, they probably don't really read all of the forms they are signing and have no idea of what is really going on with their children in the back office. I can also tell you that it is not just done in the event of an emergency - it's usually done on smaller children who are afraid, and is used to control the child for long periods of time to complete the most dental work possible in the time alloted. I have only witnessed a couple of instances where it was actually beneficial for both the dental team and the patient. The majority of the time the child is terrified, screaming, crying, spitting, and choking thru the entire procedure, while the doctor and the assistant speaks to them in an angry tone, then is sent back out to their parent soaking wet with sweat and exhausted from the ordeal they just went thru. This whole practice is not only traumatic for the patient and upsetting to the parent, but nerve-racking for the dental auxiliary working on the child, which often results in poor quality dentistry. Not to mention the dentisit's they hire are usually fresh out of dental school and are not experienced enough to handle the fast-pace and large patient load demanded of them. I enjoy working with children and I love working with the under-served community because they really need the help and have little other options, but now that I'm starting to see and feel the other side of corporate dentistry, I'm really disappointed - even disgusted at times.

Awe. The Internet is a wonderful thing!

update 3/1/2010

Dr. Maziar Izadi is now practicing what he calls dentistry at Allcare in New York.  Wonder why they hired him, he's a terrible dentist according to all reports.